Venn Innovation and Y.E.C.: New Multi-Year Partnership

Moncton, NB: Venn Innovation and the Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge (Y.E.C.) are excited to announce a new multi-year partnership. This new partnership will create a clear path of entrepreneurship opportunities for youth as well as for the programs and services that are helping create New Brunswick’s next wave of startups. The agreement will see a stronger Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge presence in the Venn Centre, and Venn support for Y.E.C.’s programs across the province.

“We want it to be as easy as possible for our youth to become entrepreneurial. To achieve that, we bring the right people and resources together. For us it’s about creating a pipeline for young people who are creative and curious to channel it. That’s a goal we share with Venn,” said Sarah Short, Founder of the Y.E.C. “For the past four years, our partnership with Venn has been a perfect example of how impactful collaboration can be. Today’s announcement shows that we’re getting more intentional with what we hope to achieve,” said Sarah.

“The Y.E.C. has proven to be a remarkable vehicle to expose New Brunswick youth to the possibilities of being an entrepreneur,” said Venn CEO, Doug Robertson. “Each year we are so inspired by the energy, creativity and enthusiasm they bring to their entrepreneurial ideas and the Y.E.C. competition. Entrepreneurs are key to modernizing and catalyzing economic development in our province and our collaboration with the Y.E.C. is helping develop the next generation of skilled talent,” he added.

The Y.E.C. is focused on lighting the way for youth (under 25) who have an idea and are interested in pursuing it. By curating opportunities for entrepreneurial spirit, the organisation showcases the youth’s ideas through a pitch competition and offers them an opportunity to win prizes that will catalyze their ideas into real ventures. Together, over the past two years, the Y.E.C. and Venn Innovation have brought over 100 youth into the startup community through the Venn Centre to hone their entrepreneurial spirit. Many of those youth have gone on to start businesses.

The 2018 Youth Entrepreneurship Challenge season is underway with applications open until February 23rd, 2018 at midnight. If you know an entrepreneurial youth, applications can be found at www.entrepreneurshipnb.ca. If you’d like to know more about Venn Innovation and the programs we offer, please visit our main website: http://www.venninnovation.com/en/home-index.